


Edelweiss, Edelweiss, Ev'ry Springtime You Greet Me

by eafay70



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Chronic Hanahaki, Chronic Illness, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 00:21:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24594454
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eafay70/pseuds/eafay70
Summary: It's spring. For Nico, who has chronic Hanahaki, that means coughing up flowers. It's normal for him - except that it's worse this year, and Nico can't figure out why.
Relationships: Jesper Bratt/Nico Hischier
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24
Collections: Pucking Rare - A Hockey Rarepair Challenge





	Edelweiss, Edelweiss, Ev'ry Springtime You Greet Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [aimerai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimerai/gifts).
  * In response to a prompt by [aimerai](https://archiveofourown.org/users/aimerai/pseuds/aimerai) in the [PuckingRare2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/PuckingRare2020) collection. 



> **Prompt:**  
>  I saw this post (https://hiruma-musouka.tumblr.com/post/190814464330/this-is-honestly-how-i-initially-thought-hanahaki) about chronic Hanahaki where it's basically like...super inconvenient allergies except you're coughing up flowers every spring/summer and I'd love to see a fic with this take on Hanahaki.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Thanks to aimerai for coming up with such an interesting prompt! I hope you enjoy this fic! :)
> 
> The way in which Nico deals with his chronic illness, especially in terms of his thoughts, is based on my own experiences dealing with a chronic illness. My experiences and thoughts have been mostly negative for longer than I'd like to admit, so there's quite a bit of negativity in this fic, including what might be considered suicidal thoughts (without suicidal actions). Please read with caution.
> 
> Also, due to the nature of the Hanahaki disease trope, there's a lot of coughing in this fic. The descriptions aren't graphic, but please read with caution if needed.
> 
> The title is based on the opening line of the song "Edelweiss" from "The Sound of Music."

Nico's list of worst things about chronic Hanahaki was quite long. The order varied from day to day, sometimes from hour to hour, so it was probably a good thing that he'd never bothered writing it down.

Right now, the worst part was having to see edelweiss flowers in springtime, rather than in summer or early autumn when they bloomed in nature. It made Nico feel incredibly homesick, on top of feeling horribly winded from all the coughing. But he was used to both of those feelings after so many years, so he simply cleaned up the sink, left the bathroom, and returned to the TV room.

"You okay?" Jesper asked, fiddling with the game controller.

"Yes, of course." Nico sat down and picked up his own controller. "It's a part of springtime."

Jesper frowned. "You have allergies?"

"No. Chronic Hanahaki."

The frown deepened. "So you fall in love and cough up flowers every spring?"

"No." Nico tapped through the menus with more force than was strictly necessary. "I cough up flowers every spring regardless of any romantic feelings. The frequency of the coughing and the size of the flowers can be affected by whether I'm in love, but I cough them up either way."

"Oh." Jesper dropped the subject as they played, to Nico's relief.

* * *

Nico scowled at his laptop screen, trying to understand what he was seeing.

Every spring, Nico used a spreadsheet to track his chronic Hanahaki: how often he coughed, how many flowers he coughed up at a time, and how big the flowers were. He found it helpful to compare data with previous years on a biweekly basis.

Right now, Nico was comparing the first two weeks of this spring with the first two weeks of last spring - and seeing differences.

He was coughing more often. He was coughing up more flowers at a time. The flowers were bigger.

In other words, his chronic Hanahaki was worse this year.

But that didn't make sense - nothing else was different this year.

Hockey was the same in terms of both his personal stats and the team's results. Trades always changed the exact makeup of the team, and it was never easy to say goodbye to a friend; however, none of this season's trades had been particularly tough on Nico, so his symptoms couldn't be explained that way.

His personal life was fine, too. Sure, he missed his family, but they stayed in touch through video calls and social media. And the language barrier was sometimes frustrating or annoying, but his English certainly wasn't getting worse, so that couldn't explain the symptoms, either.

Nico was pulled out of his thoughts by his phone buzzing. It was a text from Jesper: _Log on, dude! You promised me a rematch tonight!_

Oh, right! Nico saved the spreadsheet and hurried to the TV room to get gaming (albeit on mute so Jesper wouldn't hear the coughing fit that started as soon as he sat down).

* * *

Most of the time, Nico didn't particularly mind road trips. However, when spring rolled around, his chronic Hanahaki meant coughing in hotel bathrooms, which always felt less pleasant than coughing in his own bathroom at home.

Right now, Nico was coughing so loudly that he worried about disturbing whoever was in the next room. It was the middle of the night, which was unusual for Nico's coughing, but he didn't have the energy to think about that. All he could do was cough, cough, and cough.

Once the coughing stopped, Nico sighed softly to himself. He hadn't bothered turning on the bathroom light, so he couldn't see the mess around the sink. Rather than worry about that, he trudged back to bed, hoping to get some sleep.

Just as his head hit the pillow, his phone buzzed on the nightstand with a text from Jesper: _Are you okay? I heard you coughing. :(_

With slow fingers, Nico replied: _I'm fine. Just the usual. Sorry I woke you up._

His phone buzzed again: _No need to apologize! Good night._

Nico sighed again, put down his phone, and somehow managed to fall asleep.

The next morning, Nico was unsurprised when Jesper sat next to him at breakfast. "Are you sure you're okay?" Jesper asked quietly, a worried look on his face.

"It's just the chronic Hanahaki," Nico answered, also speaking quietly. "I'm not sick."

Jesper's worry seemed to deepen. "Did I stress you out last night?"

"No," Nico insisted. "You're my best friend. We hang out all the time. Last night was maybe later than usual, but that doesn't affect things."

"If you say so." Jesper didn't look completely convinced, but he didn't press further, which was all Nico really wanted. 

* * *

Nico blinked in frustration. He'd finished coughing a few minutes ago, which meant he had to count the number of flowers piled around his sink.

But he couldn't. No matter what language he used, no matter how he rearranged the flowers, he kept getting confused and overwhelmed.

This had never happened to Nico before. Combined with the way his symptoms were noticeably worse this year, he was starting to freak out. So he called the first person who came to mind.

"Nico?" Jesper sounded surprised. "Are you okay?"

"No," Nico admitted. "I can't count them."

"What can't you count?"

"The flowers. I coughed too many."

"Are you home?"

"Yeah. Are you?"

"I'm coming over. It's going to be okay, Nico, I promise."

Nico wanted to object by pointing out that Jesper had no way of controlling Nico's chronic Hanahaki, but instead he started coughing again. He closed his eyes, silently wishing for the millionth time that he didn't have to live with this disease.

Just as he managed to stop coughing, he heard Jesper shout, "Nico! I'm here!"

"Bathroom," Nico said weakly.

Jesper must have guessed that, because he appeared a few moments later. "Oh, Nico," he whispered. "That's a very big flower."

Nico opened his eyes. Sure enough, there was a long-stemmed flower in the sink. "That's what I just coughed up."

"So it's these others that need counting?" Jesper asked. Nico nodded. "Okay. You go sit down and I'll do it."

"But..." Nico sat on the edge of the bathtub. "They're mine."

"You're my best friend, so I'm going to help you," Jesper said firmly.

Nico watched as Jesper sorted the flowers into piles, counted each pile in whispered Swedish, and typed into his phone. After about two minutes, Jesper was done. He turned to face Nico, but Nico spoke first: "You didn't have to do that."

"Too late." Jesper showed Nico his phone, on which there was a list of numbers. "The bolded one at the bottom is the total."

"I..." Nico shook his head. "That can't be right. That's a big number."

"That's why you couldn't count it yourself." Jesper was smiling, but looked nervous. "That really big flower could mean you're in love, right? I read that online."

"Where online?"

"The website for a Swedish organization that researches chronic Hanahaki and provides support for people who have it." Jesper's smile faltered. "I wanted reassurance that you were okay, but I didn't quite find it. It's more like you're not realizing feelings."

Nico looked down. "The person I think about the most is you. But that's been the case for a long time because we're best friends."

"I fell in love with you slowly," Jesper whispered. "I didn't realize it until that night when you were coughing in the hotel and I was so scared."

Nico looked up. "Really?" Jesper nodded. "Can I kiss you?"

Jesper knelt down. Nico kissed him softly. "Wow," they both whispered, then laughed.

"Okay, let's do this," Nico said. "Not just because I think it'll help."

* * *

_About Eleven Months Later_

Nico glared at the sink. "I hate edelweiss."

"No, you don't," Jesper said from the doorway of the bathroom. "You just hate coughing it up."

"I suppose you're right." Nico walked over to his boyfriend. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You told me last year that you cough up flowers no matter what." Jesper kissed Nico firmly. "Now stop worrying and come lose at Chel."

"You wish!" Nico chased him to the TV room, reasonably happy despite his chronic Hanahaki.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :)


End file.
